DHS halts deportation of Peruvian man to Africa after court ruling

ICE officials prepared to send a 35‑year‑old Peruvian man to the Central African Republic late Wednesday, only to be stopped by a three‑judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges clarified a ruling from the previous week that bars the Trump administration’s “third‑country removal” program, which had allowed migrants to be expelled to nations other than their own. The move would have marked the first use of that policy since the court’s decision.

The third‑country removal scheme was launched in 2019 under the Trump administration as a way to ease overcrowded immigration courts and detention facilities. It let ICE transfer migrants to countries that had signed removal agreements, even if those nations were not the migrants’ home states. In 2020, a federal judge in New York halted the program, finding it violated U.S. immigration law. The 1st Circuit upheld that injunction in a 2022 decision, and the recent clarification reinforced that ICE cannot proceed with any removals that do not send people back to their country of nationality.

The Peruvian detainee, who had been held in a Boston ICE facility since his illegal entry in 2022, was slated for deportation under a bilateral accord with the Central African Republic. Advocates for the man said the plan ignored his right to a hearing and risked sending him to a nation with no ties to him. A spokesperson for ICE said the agency will comply with the court’s order and reassess the case. Immigration‑rights groups welcomed the ruling, calling it a “necessary check on executive overreach.”

The decision forces ICE to return the man to detention and consider removal to Peru, the country of his citizenship. It also puts a halt to dozens of pending third‑country removals across the country. Legal experts say the administration may seek a new legal framework or try to negotiate revised agreements, but any further attempts will likely face fresh court challenges. The ruling underscores the judiciary’s role in shaping U.S. immigration policy and signals that the government’s ability to bypass traditional removal processes is now sharply limited.